my roommate was gone this morning by the time i woke up, off to her MIT orientation meeting. i got my bike from the basement and went to the supermarket to get some milk. when i got back i strapped the latest norwegian shipment to my bike - the biggest box yet but not very heavy since it was just 2 child booster seats and a watch. i was actually a little worried that the post office might not ship it because it was too big but i didn't have any problems.

i then stopped by the cafe. my parents had been in flushing helping my uncle pan clean out his father's condo so he could sell it. they brought back a case of heirloom old chinese calligraphy rubbing books at least a hundred years old (to be kept at their place for safe keeping).

i left with some ximilu (taro coconut milk with tapioca balls) jack had dropped off yesterday and had some after i ate a bowl of cereal for lunch.

my neighbor julia was back in town, perhaps moving out her things for the last time. an older woman was helping her - her mother? - and after they loaded up an SUV they were gone.

my roommate didn't come back home until 6:00. she told me she actually went to go look at a house today, on webster avenue in somerville, close to union square. she found it through a local chinese community website (i didn't realize one existed). it was a chinese post-graduate couple with a kid and they were looking for someone else to share an apartment. the family seemed nice, but my roommate didn't like the neighborhood ("too dirty, too noisy") and wanted to keep looking. later she found another house to see for tomorrow, actually very close to where i am.

my roommate actually texted me in the afternoon, but i couldn't read it because it was all in chinese so i just saw empty squares. she wanted to let me know she forgot to close her window. later she asked if it was okay to just leave it open, because apparently that's what she does at home to air out the room. "yeah, when you're home," i said, even though it pained me to think she was letting out precious heat. i told her she had to close the window when she leaves the house though because we live on the first floor and it makes it too easy for thieves to get inside. but if she thinks it's actually so hot that she needs to open the window, maybe i shouldn't bother turning up the heat anymore when she's home.

lasagna eating continues: i find it tastes much better slathered with a lot of hot sauce.

in skyrim, i'm still making my way to avanchnzel. it took me forever to clear treva's watch. those bandits would gang up on me and no matter what combination of weapons/potions/spells/scrolls/shouts i couldn't fight them all before dying. finally i developed the strategy of killing one bandit, running away, save the game, then wait for the bandits to find me and give me time to naturally restore my health and stamina. i was worried that my follower had already been killed (since she jumped into the thick of the bandit onslaught) but when i finally managed to kill all the bandits, suddenly my follower showed up. thanks for helping! when i finally found avanchnzel i realized why it had such a strange name (stranger than normal): it's a dwarven city. i've yet to explore it.